Spidery Intervention

Tony was not a happy camper.

To be fair, Tony hadn’t exactly been a happy camper in a couple of years, but he was just plain annoyed right then.

Why?

Because he was having to bring his newly acquired 14-year-old intern to Bucharest with him. Tony brought him along to the Accords signing as a bit of a learning experience at Pepper’s suggestion, to which Tony had agreed since he thought it was supposed to be a relatively safe learning experience and got the boy’s unfairly hot Aunt’s blessing with the condition that they got her a souvenir (Peter got her a shirt and Tony bought her a few bottles of Austrian wine and sweets, and some Klint-inspired jewelry, because Tony had great taste). The boy was also curiously interested in the Accords since the moment he heard about them on TV, asking Tony surprisingly in-depth questions.

The issue wasn’t having to bring the kid. Honestly, Tony liked him more than he liked any of the Avengers. He was smart, kind, polite, and delightfully sassy once he got over the hero worship a little.

Tony hadn’t expected the attack.

He also wasn’t expecting the whole clusterfuck in Bucharest, though Tony felt like he should have.

And now, because he was the boy’s chaperone and he couldn’t leave him wandering alone in Europe, he was having to bring him into a building where an accused, dangerous terrorist was being held.

At least he had taken his instructions seriously at first.

“Alright, Peter, don’t get too far away from me, don’t speak to any stranger, and don’t be too starstruck by the other Avengers except Rhodey. He’s the only cool one apart from me,” he said as they stepped into the UN building.

“What about the Black Widow, Captain America, or Vision?”

“Romanov is not that cool and Cap is very low on that list right now. Vision is not here right now, so he doesn’t count.”

That had been the end of their exchange before Tony finally caught sight of his platypus and the rest of them.

Tony was thankfully prepared to convince Steve to sign the Accords, which he finally managed to achieve after several minutes of negotiating with a particularly stubborn cat. Steve was about to sign, the tip of the pen right on the paper when someone triggers the Winter Soldier.

Tony watched as a couple of agents faced the brainwashed Barnes, only for the super-soldier to wipe the floor with them. Acting quickly, he activated his gauntlet and he was about to step forward when Tony remembered the teenager he was currently responsible for.

“Kid, stay here and don’t let Elsa see you.”

“Mr. Stark-,” Peter tried to say before Tony sent him a serious look.

“Stay back.”

When the boy nodded, Tony moved. With the assassin not looking at him, Tony used the chance to shoot a sonic boom to try to disorientate Barnes. Even with that, the soldier recovered quickly, so the engineer followed it with a flash to try to blind him. Coming closer, Tony managed to block a punch to his stomach before the two started a bout of hand-to-hand combat.

Almost by instinct, Tony placed his armor-covered hand in front of the muzzle just as Barnes tried to shoot him. The man tried to remove the gun from Tony’s hold, only for it to come undone. Tony smirked in surprise and then followed by punching Barnes in the face, only for his opponent to retaliate by elbowing Tony in the face and then punching him in the stomach to send him skidding back.

“Mr. Stark!”

The punch disoriented Tony, forcing his sight to be invaded by yellow spots. He felt a hand press where the brainwashed soldier had hit him and another one on his back, helping him sit up. His vision cleared a little and he focused on Peter’s worried face. “Fuck, kid, I told you to stay back,” he wheezed out.

A loud thump caught his attention and he turned to see Barnes holding Natasha by the neck and choking her.

Before Tony could move, his intern was already running toward the fight. He tried to catch him, but the throbbing in his ribs and the dizziness barely let him choke out a protest.

By the time he got his bearing back a couple of seconds later, Peter had reached the triggered assassin and proceeded to kick him off the Black Widow. Barnes was launched back by the attack, his back hitting a railing a few feet away. And then, Tony watched in shock as, after checking on Natasha, the small teen threw himself against the fucking Winter Soldier, who had already recovered and was preparing his metal arm to attack.

Only for Peter to stop the fist with his bare hand.

Unbelieving of what he was witnessing, Tony could only blink as the kid proceeded to fight the Winter Soldier in hand-to-hand combat… And get the upper hand with ease. Peter continuously and consistently blocked and stopped and evaded several hits as if they were nothing until he seemed to finally catch an opening and punched him, forcing Barnes back against the railing once again.

The soldier seemed to be about to stand up again but, from Tony’s perspective, Peter pointed his hands at Barnes and suddenly he was covered by what looked like an enormous quantity of spiderweb. Even then, the assassin tried to continue fighting, but T’Challa finally intervened and kicked Barnes in the head, rendering him unconscious.

“Holy shit, Peter!” Tony leaped forward, ignoring his protesting torso as he stumbled closer to the teen.

“Mr. Stark, are you alright!?” seemingly oblivious to the looks he was getting from everyone, Peter proceeded to fuss over Tony as if he himself hadn’t just bested with a dangerous enemy in a fistfight. “I mean, you’re walking and your breathing doesn’t sound too bad and neither does your heart. Oh, uh, but you were punched in the face, right? Are you still dizzy, Mr. Stark? Let me help you, sir,” unable to get a word in, Tony was made to sit on one of the still-standing chairs.

“Kid!” Tony managed to say, stopping the boy’s antics. Peter clammed up, but his big puppy eyes were starring at Tony apprehensively. “You just… You kicked a super assassin’s ass like if you did it every day. How…?” things seemed to click in his head. “You… You are Spider-dude from New York! A fucking infant is a vigilante and just kicked the Winter Soldier’s ass!” Tony sounded hysterical, but so what?

“Spider-man,” Peter complained.

Tony recovered quickly, nodding at Natasha as the spy walked closer to them.

“That was pretty impressive,” the woman complimented.

“MissBlackWidowRomanoffMaamareyouokImsorryIcouldnthelosooner!”

“Pete!” Tony said, putting a hand on the kid’s shoulder. “Kid, I told you Romanov isn't that cool. Besides, you just saved her life. That arguably makes you cooler than her.”

“I’m way cooler than you will ever hope or dream to be, Stark,” Natasha said while raising an eyebrow.

Tony shrugged. “All my hopes and dreams are dead, Natashlie dear. Take that as you will.”

The redheaded spy rolled her eyes but Tony knew she was hiding a smirk.

“That’s a mood, Mr. Stark.”

“So you are enhanced?” Natasha asked, turning her attention back to Peter.

The boy shrank a little when he became the focus of both super-heroes. “Um… Yeah… I was bitten by a radioactive spider several months ago.”

“And you are a vigilante? How old are you, anyway?” she pressed, taking a moment to check back as some of the other agents were trying to remove the web trapping Barnes.

“I-I’m fourteen… And the thing is when you can do the things I can but don’t and bad things happen, they happen because of you,” Peter said solemnly. “I have these powers and I could use them to become popular but… I was always me and I can’t just change like that. My powers are a responsibility and I want to use them for good.”

“So you decided to use your powers to what? Help the little person?” Tony interjected.

“Yes, exactly!” Peter said, nodding enthusiastically before retreating back into himself. “I’m not like the Avengers. I don’t save the world and stuff but… I think I can make a difference in people’s lives.”

Tony felt his heart melt a little, and an exchange of looks with Natasha let him know she was on the same boat. “Kid, you may not be saving the world but those people you help? You’re saving their world and that’s something to be very proud of.”

If Peter had been red before, he seemed to be trying to imitate a tomato now.

“If that display was any indication, you could give Steve a run for his money, so you should give yourself more credit, Peter,” Natasha added with a smile.

Natasha and Tony then turned their attention to making sure Barnes was secured again. Thankfully, Tony’s glove had a torch capable of cutting the webs enough to move Barnes onto a stretcher without actually releasing him.

Because Barnes didn’t escape, Steve didn’t go on another rampage across Europe. Barnes was also able to identify the man who triggered him, allowing them to send the authorities to apprehend him. He also expressed his relief at not having another Stark’s blood in his hands, inadvertently revealing he was the one who killed Howard and Maria Stark.

Remarkably, Tony didn’t lash out but he definitely had to step out as he felt the beginnings of a panic attack. Tony was barely conscious of Peter and Natasha following behind and of Steve rushing into the room where they were keeping Barnes. It took him several minutes of breathing exercises before he was able to calm down.

Feeling a bit embarrassed that he was seen losing his composure in front of his teenage intern, Tony was mildly surprised though when the boy only gave him an empathetic, if pained, smile.

“I guess even knowing beforehand didn’t help that much, but I’m glad to see you didn’t try to hurt Barnes,” Natasha said, putting a bottle of water on the table in front of him.

Tony gave her a strange look. “What do you mean knowing beforehand?”

Natasha’s observed him for a couple of seconds before her eyes widened. “How…? You didn’t know?” she suddenly looked very pale.

“That Barnes… That the Winter Soldier killed my parents? How could have I known? Did you know?”

“Steve and I discovered it when we released the Hydra files. He insisted he was going to tell you,” the spy told him. “I thought that was the reason you were pulling away even if you were letting us use the quinjet to hunt down the remaining Hydra bases while Steve looked for Barnes; because he’s not really guilty but he still needed to be contained. I swear, I thought you knew.”

Tony just observed her without blinking, feeling an amalgam of unnameable emotions swirling inside. His mind was absent, only being able to process one single fact.

Steve had lied to him.

Steve had known about his parents' death being an assassination and hadn’t told him.

Steve had used his resources to track down the weapon that had killed hundreds of people during the last 70 years and had kept the truth from him; a truth he didn’t have a right to keep from him.

Tony remembered different moments of his life where he felt rage; he remembered the all-encompassing heat of wrath that enveloped him and left him only feeling a desire to break, destroy and burn. His rage right then was different: it was cold and laser-focused, which incited him to make sure that his enemies Steve lived and learned the consequences of pissing him off.

Tony stood up, not acknowledging the way Natasha moved out of his way nor the way Peter didn’t do so. He only had one thought him his head.

“Rogers!”